Emovo Corpus: an Italian Emotional Speech Database

This article describes the first emotional corpus, named EMOVO, applicable to Italian language,. It is a database built from the voices of up to 6 actors who played 14 sentences simulating 6 emotional states (disgust, fear, anger, joy, surprise, sadness) plus the neutral state. These emotions are the well-known Big Six found in most of the literature related to emotional speech. The recordings were made with professional equipment in the Fondazione Ugo Bordoni laboratories. The paper also describes a subjective validation test of the corpus, based on emotion-discrimination of two sentences carried out by two different groups of 24 listeners. The test was successful because it yielded an overall recognition accuracy of 80%. It is observed that emotions less easy to recognize are joy and disgust, whereas the most easy to detect are anger, sadness and the neutral state

Double corrugated waveguide for Ka-Band traveling wave tube

The double corrugated waveguide (DCW), incorpo- rating a row of metallic pillars on each side of the electron beam, is demonstrated as a promising slow-wave structure for millimeter wave, Ka-band, traveling wave tubes (TWTs). Different configurations, including novel bent couplers with tapered pillars, have been designed, realized, and validated by S-parameter measurements. The design and simulation of a DCW TWT demonstrated very good performance in the frequency band 32–37 GHz. The ease of fabrication and assembly make the DCW a suitable basis for a new generation of millimeter wave TWTs

A compact light readout system for longitudinally segmented shashlik calorimeters

The longitudinal segmentation of shashlik calorimeters is challenged by dead zones and non-uniformities introduced by the light collection and readout system. This limitation can be overcome by direct fiber-photosensor coupling, avoiding routing and bundling of the wavelength shifter fibers and embedding ultra-compact photosensors (SiPMs) in the bulk of the calorimeter. We present the first experimental test of this readout scheme performed at the CERN PS-T9 beamline in 2015 with negative particles in the 1-5~GeV energy range. In this paper, we demonstrate that the scheme does not compromise the energy resolution and linearity compared with standard light collection and readout systems. In addition, we study the performance of the calorimeter for partially contained charged hadrons to assess the $e/\pi$ separation capability and the response of the photosensors to direct ionization.Comment: To appear in Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research,

Effects of government expenditure, credit and tax policies on the economic development of Iran with special reference to the 1960-76 period

Iran is ons of the best case studies among the oil producing countries in which the effects of oil revenue can be examined. While it has some of the basic characteristics of developing countries, it is endowed with enormous wealth. A combination of these factors has increased the role of the government in economic development by granting a greater possibility of spending and menoeuverability with regard to its economic policies. Due to the importance of the state in the economic development of Iran, this thesis has been devoted to the economic role of the government in Iran. We have examined the determinants of government expenditure, in three parts, its effects and the importance of different channels of finance. In the first part, we have examined the determinants of government expenditure which indicate that on the one hand, the revenue constraint has determined the level of government expenditure at the aggregate level and changes in the pattern of expenditure have been produced by an exogenous factor mainly oil revenue. On the other hand, this exogenous factor which has granted the state a political independence from its social base, has affected the pattern of distribution of government expenditure. Due to the importance of political factors, social and economic expenditures have been undermined while defence expenditure has been over-emphasised. The effects of such a pattern of government expenditure which has been reinforced by other economic policies, have been the distortion of economic development. As the second part will show, the effects of government economic policies have been determined by the short-run nature of the determinants of government expenditure through which the government has tried to benefit the middle and upper classes in order to grasp some political support. In the main the majority of peasants have been ignored and have received no part of government expenditure. Also, by the emphasis on capital intensity, has created a maldistribution of Income which has appeared as an impediment to the growth of industrial production* In the service sector, while the long -run needs for human capital and infra-structural investment have been undermined, defence expenditure has resulted in the depletion of foreign exchange and the distortion of the pattern of development. As the third part shows, the above pattern has been affected by the structure of the Iranian fiscal system in which a relative independence of the state has been ensured through the external channel of finance which has reduced the importance of public opinion in the allocation of government spendings. Not only has it resluted in retarding the development of the fiscal system , but, has also reinforced the gearing of the Iranian economy to the exogenous determinant which in turn has been determined by the structure of the international oil market and the commitment of the Iranian government to its allies. Due to the existence of such dualistic determinants, the government has had to balance between internal and external factors. Because of the gradual rising of importance of oil revenue, the trade-off point has moved toward external factors which has caused . an increasing trend towards military expenditure. In this way, the gap between the state and its internal / social base has widened and the political system has no longer been able to reflect the long-run needs of the economy. Since economic decision making has been strongly affected by the political factors, a socio-political change may be inevitable at a time of economic crisis

The OPERA magnetic spectrometer

The OPERA neutrino oscillation experiment foresees the construction of two magnetized iron spectrometers located after the lead-nuclear emulsion targets. The magnet is made up of two vertical walls of rectangular cross section connected by return yokes. The particle trajectories are measured by high precision drift tubes located before and after the arms of the magnet. Moreover, the magnet steel is instrumented with Resistive Plate Chambers that ease pattern recognition and allow a calorimetric measurement of the hadronic showers. In this paper we review the construction of the spectrometers. In particular, we describe the results obtained from the magnet and RPC prototypes and the installation of the final apparatus at the Gran Sasso laboratories. We discuss the mechanical and magnetic properties of the steel and the techniques employed to calibrate the field in the bulk of the magnet. Moreover, results of the tests and issues concerning the mass production of the Resistive Plate Chambers are reported. Finally, the expected physics performance of the detector is described; estimates rely on numerical simulations and the outcome of the tests described above.Comment: 6 pages, 10 figures, presented at the 2003 IEEE-NSS conference, Portland, OR, USA, October 20-24, 200

Rehabilitative good practices in the treatment of sarcopenia: a narrative review

ABSTRACT: To date, rehabilitative good practices that analyze all aspects of the rehabilitation management of the patient with sarcopenia are absent in the literature. The purpose of this article is to carry out research and evaluation of the evidence, good practice, and recommendations in the literature relating to the rehabilitative treatment of disabilities associated with sarcopenia. Bibliographic research was conducted on Medline, PEDro, Cochrane Database, and Google Scholar. All articles published in the last 10 yrs were analyzed. The results of this research generated three guidelines, eight meta-analyses, five systematic reviews, a Cochrane review, 17 reviews, and seven consensus conferences. From the analysis of the literature, it seems that most of the works agree in affirming that exercise and diet supplementation are the cornerstones of rehabilitation treatment of patients with sarcopenia. The practice of an adequate lifestyle received numerous high-grade recommendations in the included guidelines. Based on the data obtained, the rehabilitation management of the patient with sarcopenia must be personalized and must include exercise and nutritional supplementation. These factors are important in increasing the autonomy of the elderly essential for safe walking without neglecting stretching exercises that are important for flexibility and balance and coordination exercises

Design and fabrication of double corrugated waveguide for a Ka-band traveling wave tube

The double corrugated waveguide is demonstrated to be a slow wave structure which is straightforward to manufacture and assemble. The design and fabrication of a Ka-band prototype is presented. The ability of the double corrugated waveguide to be bent through 90o has permitted the build of a compact slow wave structure with very good electrical behavior which is suitable for millimeter wave travelling wave tubes

Clinical characteristics and outcome of patients with autoimmune hemolytic anemia (AIHA) uniformly defined as primary by a diagnostic work-up

Primary autoimmune hemolytic anemia (P-AIHA) is a relatively uncommon and hetereogeneous disease characterized by the destruction of red blood cells due to anti-erythrocyte autoantibodies (AeAbs) in the absence of an associated disease [1–3]. Secondary AHIA is frequently associated with lymphoproliferative diseases (LD) in particular, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, aggressive or indolent lymphomas, autoimmune disorders, malignancies other than lymphoid, and infections [1,2,4]. On the hypothetical assumption that in a significant proportion of cases defined as P-AIHA the clinical heterogeneity could be due to an ignored associated disease, we retrospectively analyzed the clinical characteristics and outcome of patients with a diagnosis of P-AIHA based on a diagnostic work-up aimed at excluding or identifying an associated disease. ..

Chemical promenades: Exploring potential-energy surfaces with immersive virtual reality

The virtual-reality framework AVATAR (Advanced Virtual Approach to Topological Analysis of Reactivity) for the immersive exploration of potential-energy landscapes is presented. AVATAR is based on modern consumer-grade virtual-reality technology and builds on two key concepts: (a) the reduction of the dimensionality of the potential-energy surface to two process-tailored, physically meaningful generalized coordinates, and (b) the analogy between the evolution of a chemical process and a pathway through valleys (potential wells) and mountain passes (saddle points) of the associated potential energy landscape. Examples including the discovery of competitive reaction paths in simple A + BC collisional systems and the interconversion between conformers in ring-puckering motions of flexible rings highlight the innovation potential that augmented and virtual reality convey for teaching, training, and supporting research in chemistry